Commute times: Traverse City doesn’t have much to complain about

Data-set Tuesday

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a report on commute times around the United States. How long are people traveling to get to work? As one might expect, some of the country’s larger metro regions lead in terms of what the Census Bureau calls mega-commutes; commutes longer than 90 minutes and 50 miles. Nearly 600,000 full-time workers enjoy those mega-commutes. Those with 60-minute commutes or longer regardless of mode choice, total about 8.1% of the U.S. workforce.

Locally, the data is a bit difficult to access, but WNYC created a handy data map that gives the averages based on zip codes. For my zip, 49686, the average commute is 18.4 minutes; a full 7 minutes below the national average of 25.4. Across town, 49684 is even lower at 17.2 minutes. We certainly aren’t all that delayed in traffic here in Traverse City.

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